France reports almost unchanged budget gap in June

PARIS, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- France's budget deficit was almost unchanged at 59.4 billion euros (79.54 billion U.S. dollars) at the end of June compared to a year earlier, the French Budget Ministry said on Friday.

Struggling to collect higher revenue to respect its financial commitments, the government garnered 151.7 billion euros, down 0.7 percent from a year earlier, with net tax receipts growing 0.7 percent to 146.6 billion euros.

In line with the Socialists' target, spending stood at 194.4 billion euros against 196.2 billion euros in June 2013.

Following an expected slowdown in economic activities, the budget deficit of Europe's second largest economy is expected to stand at 3.8 percent in 2014, up from the previous forecast of 3.6 percent of GDP. (1 euro = 1.34 U.S. dollars)